Male, February 22 (newsin.asia): In collaboration with the World Bank and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Maldivian Ministry of Finance and Treasury has initiated action to recover assets totaling US$ 1.4 billion which had been stolen or earned illegally by State officials.
The Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday, that the government has begun engaging with the Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative (StAR) which is backed by the UNODC and the World Bank, to bring the stolen assets back to where they belong – the citizens of the Maldives.
The statement said that the Abdulla Yameen administration is committed to strengthening the legal framework and the investigative abilities of Maldivian financial monitoring institutions with the help of the international community.
The Maldives had signed the UN Convention Against Corruption in 2007 and has been having an anti-corruption commission in addition to other state institutions which monitor financial transactions.
In October 2017, President Abdulla Yameen set up the State Asset Recovery Commission which has estimated that, as of January 1, 2018, US$ 1.4 billion had been earned through corruption and misuse of office by State officials and stashed away overseas.
